Chocolate Lovers’ Cake with Raspberries

The cold bug has gotten the best of me these past two or so weeks, enough so I didn’t bake anything for Thanksgiving. What kind of dessert blogger doesn’t attempt to make a sweet treat for a special holiday?! *raising hand*. That would be me. I know, I fail at life.

But… to sorta redeem myself, I made this cake a few days after Thanksgiving. I modified the Chocolate Lovers’ Favorite Cake recipe a tiny bit. Instead of a full cup of melted butter, I used only 1/2 cup plus 1/2 cup applesauce. And I also threw in a bag of raspberries. It is delicious!

I was impatient waiting for the raspberries to thaw and decided to defrost it in the microwave at a low power for about 30 seconds. Lemme just say that’s a huuuuge no-no ’cause the raspberries turned into mush. So here’s a tip (see how my failures are your gain!): Allow a few hours for the raspberries to thaw/drain.

See the “mushy” raspberries!

“Mush” on the other side

I’ll bake this recipe again soon ’cause it’s most definitely a keeper AND I’d like to see the raspberries in the cake, not just taste it.

RecipeChocolate Lovers’ Cake with Raspberries

INGREDIENTS:

1 (18.25 ounce) Duncan Hines devil’s food cake mix

1 (3.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix

16 oz. sour cream

1/2 cup melted butter

1/2 cup apple sauce

5 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

12 oz. semisweet chocolate chips

1 small bag of raspberries (I used a 10 oz. bag)

PREPARATION:

Drain small bag of frozen raspberries. Allow a couple of hours for this. Keep the juice, you’ll be using it for raspberry sauce!

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 10 inch Bundt pan.

In a large bowl, stir together cake mix and pudding mix. Make a well in the center and pour in sour cream, melted butter, apple sauce, eggs and vanilla extract. Beat on low speed until blended. Scrape bowl, and beat 4 minutes on medium speed. Stir in the semisweet chocolate chips. Pour half the batter into prepared pan, then layer with the drained raspberries before pouring in the rest of the cake batter.TIP: Place foil beneath your pan in oven. Cake will rise a few inches while baking and the foil will save you from cleaning your oven from the possible overflow.

Bake in preheated oven for at least 65 minutes. Do the toothpick test. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.TIP: During the 10 minute cool-down, I used a knife to remove the dark/semi-burnt areas. Also, you can expect cake to deflate.

RASPBERRY SAUCE:

Raspberry juice from the frozen raspberries

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 tablespoon cold water

DIRECTIONS:

While cake is baking, combine the cornstarch and cold water in small bowl.

Heat raspberry juice until it simmers and bubbles. Stir in the cornstarch combo. Sauce will thicken.